A few months ago I had pegged the first weekend of August as a good time to do the Timberline to Town trail. I had hoped for a group of friends to do it but for various reasons as the date approached it ended up being just me.

Last year when Paul, Noah and I did this we stayed at Camp Creek a few miles further up the road. That option required us to drive to the shuttle pick up in the morning, but Tollgate is only 3.5 miles so I just budgeted enough time to bike down for shuttle pickup in the morning.

Site 11 is large. Backing Clifford the Big Red Van into it wasn’t the easiest task as the driveway angled in the complete opposite direction of the one-way loop I was driving. A fifty point turn later, and expert use of the backup camera got me where I needed to be. The one downside to site 11 is it is right next to one of the pit toilets. The group of twenty somethings camping just the next site down kept leaving the door open and the lid up so the stench permeated the lower half of the campground. I eventually kicked the rock they were using into the woods so maybe they would get the point.

I arrived Friday night and just chilled out. Dean swung by with his newest van project using a kit from VanLab. It was pretty sweet if I gotta say so. His in-laws live off Lolo Pass and they were up there for the weekend chilling out.

I was wide awake on Saturday morning about 5:30AM with all intentions of getting the 8:20 shuttle up to Timberline Lodge. You really cannot beat the $2 fare and bike trailer to save yourself the logistics headache of shuttling yourself. It really is the optimum way to do this ride. I even got to watch the last 20 kilometers of the Olympic men’s road race while waiting for the shuttle to arrive. I had zero cell coverage at Tollgate, but just enough down in Welches. Yay for the small pleasures in life.

Since I was solo, I was able to do my own thing. I admittedly did not take any pictures for the most part. I just enjoyed the ride. I did add on an additional twelve miles by riding down to Still Creek Rd and following it back up to Forest Rd 32 just so I could ride the Bridle Path again. I was back to the campsite by noon with nothing else planned for the day.

With absolutely nowhere to be and no hard set plans I had lunch, read my book, power napped, walked around the campground, read some more and then eventually took the short walk just down the road so I could hit up Mt Hood Coffee Roasters for some beans to bring home.

Sunday – Timothy Lake Loop

I was up early again on Sunday morning. After a quick breakfast and packing up the van to get moving I drove over to Timothy Lake so I could do the loop around the lake on the mountain bike. I got a primo, shaded parking spot just past the dam in the day use area.

Again, didn’t take many pictures, just rode my bike and enjoyed the day. I only saw one other cyclist and a couple trail runners while I was out there. I was totally expecting it to be a lot more crowded than it was. No complaints from me though.

Every now and again it is nice to get in a solo trip. I do enjoy traveling with Mia and Codi more, but there is for sure a pleasant simplicity to the solo weekends.

Thanks for reading,

-Pete